Fall Writes: Week 3

A Stanfurd (yes, that is the correct spelling) grad told me that one of the study carrels in the library bore the inscription, “The sooner you fall behind, the sooner you can catch up.” As a serial procrastinator, I both love and hate that advice, precisely because it both validates and encourages the thing that I resent about my work habits, even though I now fashion myself as more of a productive procrastinator than anything else. This blog and writing group may or may not be evidence of this, although given how rarely I write proper blog posts, I’m not sure what that means. But I digress…

What I’m getting at here is that if you’re not tackling all of the things that you want to get done each week, maybe it’s time to rethink your approach. Are you simply trying to do too much? Setting lofty goals can be good, but it can also be demoralizing if you don’t achieve them, which can lead you to accomplish even less than you would otherwise. Are your goals too broad? At times I’ve found that making very specific, detailed plans for my work week help me stay on track–I think that may be the only way that I could have accomplished as much as I did this summer. So for those of you who are on track, keep on keepin’ on. For those of you who are struggling, as you make your goals this week, consider shaking things up to get back on track. And for those who have fallen away, take a note from the anonymous ‘furd philosopher.

As always, leave your goals for the week in the comments below, if you haven’t done so already.

Brenna: Very rough draft of chapter four, one day in the archives.

Mike: Workable draft of ACTR grant. (Have fun at Kate’s wedding!)

Melanie: Handle CHAT workshop like a boss, revise of fellowship research statement, and work steadily on work from home days.

Nate: Finish camera-ready on BX paper and NetKAT tech report, write a journal review, make some time to hack, drink beer, and race bikes.

Dan: My one and only goal for the week is to get a full draft of my dissertation (?!) to my advisor’s inbox. Kind of makes me feel like this:

Carly: Meet with advisor to figure out next steps, figure out what to do with pile of research and writing, figure out plans for DC.

I should have checked in, but I got through week one ok. This week I am trying to get ahead of CENFAD stuff – we have some events coming up and I am suddenly behind on the things I knew I was supposed to do, plus all these things I’m just now learning I’m supposed to do. I have a meeting this week with my advisor which I need to help figure out next steps. I have this pile of research and writing done, but it’s not in diss form, so I need to figure out what to do next. I am also going to DC this weekend and need to figure out my plans – it’s mostly for fun, but now I might be going to this African immigrant event at the White House on Monday.